C.G. Drews's Reviews > The Giver

****** THIS IS A REREAD ******

Basically the movie sparked me to reread this. I loved the book the first time I read it and I loved the movie astronomical amounts. It makes me feeeeel ALL THE THINGS. Which is odd, considering it's a book about, um, not feeling. But I think that's how it really hits home. You cannot function without emotions. You don't have life.

And, maybe this is a tangent or a rabbit-trail, but I think this really speaks volumes about depression as well. Sure, the society and the communities made life without pain and only happiness....but they couldn't feel. Depression often makes a person unable to feel/care, although then you're in a really grey cloud of darkness. BUT STILL. The similarities are huge, here, and I think that's why the book really spoke to me. (And the movie too.)

For the record: I think the changes the movie made were perfect. I still don't understand what Book-Jonas was achieving. In the movie I got it that he was releasing the memories, but did he here? DID HE? WHAT HAPPENED EXACTLY? The frustratingly open ending is one of my favourite aspects though. It's like the book cuts off in a thought...awk. I love that.

I noticed a lot of things that totally sickened me this time, whereas I didn't really get them the first time I read it. Just small details that Lois Lowry puts in so off-handedly but kind of leave me feeling like I've been punched:

- Like the fact they'll release a twin because you can't have two people who look the same.
- How when a baby turns a particular age, it gets switched for disobedience.
- Also they use the same switch on old people for disobedience. Like. What even.
- The story everyone found "Funny" of when Asher was a Three and kept mixing up the words "smack and snack" (I wonder if Asher was dyslexic?) and how he DID get switched every time he made the mistake. THIS IS A BABY BEING SWITCHED FOR MIXING UP TWO WORDS. I was really really really disturbed by this. (I nanny kids and I would literally protect them with my life. Little kids are everything.) And the way it's relayed as a "funny" story is so sickening. Also, it's noticed without emotion by the residents that "Asher stopped speaking for a while because of this, haha, how cute". NO NO NO YOU HEARTLESS MONSTERS.

It just proves again and again and again, that if people don't have emotions, we have lost who it is to be a person. We can so easily be monsters.

I pretty much never reread books, but The Giver is such an exception. I'm 21 now and it spoke to me as much (more??) as when I read it when I was 14. I think this just proves there shouldn't be age-limits on books.







PREVIOUS REVIEW FROM 2012.
This novel is beautifully written. Ideas flow with ease, words and actions fit together like a puzzle, and the style is easy to read. The author has penned a master-novel. It is a must-read, because it reminds us of what we so often wish for. What if we were all the same? The novel brings interesting questions to mind and makes you think...and wonder.

I like this book for its smooth, clear prose. For its intriguing ideas. For its simple, but deeply-moving story-line. It made me think.